ZAGREB, 18 Aug 2021 - The sole MP of the Workers' Front Katarina Peović and leader of the Novi Sindikat trade union, Mario Iveković, warned on Wednesday of the difficult situation at the Orljava textile company, underscoring that the government should give more substantial support to that government-owned factory.
Warning that on 22 July, most of the remaining 172 workers were laid off, Peović told a press conference that in the current situation, the responsibility lay entirely with the government, which is the 100% owner of the Požega-based Orljava textile company.
"It is unacceptable that the government failed to react when workers hadn't received a salary for three months until a protest rally was staged in St Mark's Square on 30 June," she said.
It didn't react, she warned, even when trade unions tried to speed up the resolution of the problem and enter into communication with the government, and now the ruling party seems to be on holiday and is not getting involved in the bankruptcy proceedings initiated to maintain production.
She recalled that both Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Physical Planning and State Assets Minister Darko Horvat had been promising that the bankruptcy proceeding would be initiated primarily to maintain production.
Peović said that the Workers' Front had sent questions to Prime Minister Plenković and Minister Horvat about the situation in the Orljava company but hadn't received answers.
According to her, problems at the Orljava company started when German company Olymp, with which Orljava had had long-standing cooperation, reduced orders and then terminated them.
Also, the Olymp company wanted to know about the government's long-term plans for Orljava but received no answers, she said.
Peović also said that if Orljava's management had not been doing its job, Minister Horvat was directly responsible for that and should have replaced it.
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